Good and Bad Meats to Eat

This isn’t new information, but it’s an important reminder of the risks of eating some sorts of meat.  After all, the season of ballpark franks and backyard barbecues is here.  The journal Circulation carries an article that describes a meta-analysis of 20 studies on the risks of eating different sorts meats.    

Harvard researchers searched for any well-controlled studies on the consumption of red (unprocessed) or processed meat and the occurrence of coronary heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.  There were 20 studies that include 1.2 million adults, and 23,889 cases of coronary heart disease (CHD) and 10,797 diabetes.  Meats were classified as processed if they were preserved by smoking, curing, salting, or chemical preservation; they had about 4 times more sodium and 50% more nitrate preservatives as unprocessed meats, but about the same amounts of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. 

Consumption of unprocessed meat, such as beef, pork or lamb, was not associated with an increase of CHD or diabetes.  However, as little as 50 grams (about one hot dog or two slices of salami), daily, was associated with a 42% increased risk of CHD and a 19% increased risk of diabetes. 

A new study has been published in the journal Cancer, which helps explain the risks of processed meats.  Among more than 300,000 men who completed food-frequency questionnaires and were followed for 7 years, there were 854 cases of transitional cell bladder cancer.  Analyses showed a slightly increased risk of this cancer in men eating high amounts of red meat, and a higher risk in those consuming larger quantities of nitrite and nitrate-plus-nitrite from processed meats.  My advice, therefore, is to limit the amounts of processed meats you eat regularly – except at the ballpark and on Labor Day.